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In rare move, Jefferson Parish DA to seek death penalty for Ahlittia North murder defendant

Matthew Flugence-horizontal mug.jpg

The Jefferson Parish district attorney said he will seek the death penalty for Matthew Flugence, 20, who was indicted Thursday with first-degree murder in the death of 6-year-old Ahlittia North.
(Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office)

Eight years after he last authorized a capital prosecution, Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick Jr. said Thursday his office will seek the death penalty for the Marrero man accused of fatally stabbing 6-year-old Ahlittia North. The disclosure came after a grand jury charged Matthew Flugence, 20, with first-degree murder of Ahlittia, who was stabbed in the neck and deposited in a garbage can along a Harvey street.

"In keeping with the office policy, I can't comment on the specific facts of the case except to say that we believe the circumstances involved warrant the death penalty," Connick said. "And we will be seeking it."

Until Thursday, a Jefferson grand jury hadn't handed up a first-degree murder indictment since November 2005, when Isaiah Doyle was charged with gunning down a Marrero store clerk despite her complying with his robbery demands. Doyle has been convicted and sentenced to die.

Capital cases are enormously expensive, in part because appeals stretch on for years. And death sentences are declining. Last year, 78 people were sentenced in the United States to execution, the second-fewest since the death penalty was reinstated in in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment. Four states -- Texas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Arizona -- accounted for 75 percent of last year's death sentences.

Connick, who took office in 1997, initially oversaw numerous death penalty cases. By the time his first six-year term ended, 10 people were sentenced to death in Jefferson, helping make the parish one of the top three in the state to populate Death Row.

Of late, however, his office has brought fewer capital cases. Since 2004, Jefferson has prosecuted only three first-degree murder cases, and of them, only two ended in death sentences -- Doyle and Dustin "Shorty" Dressner, who was convicted of killing a Marrero resident during a home invasion.

Flugence is currently the only person in Jefferson charged with a capital offense, making his case a rarity at 24th Judicial District Court. His public defender, Paul Fleming Jr., who has been assigned to represent him with Cesar Vazquez, did not respond to a request for comment. Richie Tompson, Jefferson's chief public defender, would not discuss the financial impact that the capital case will have on his budget.

Ahlittia was abducted from her mother's apartment in the 2900 block of Destrehan Avenue in Harvey in the early hours of July 13, setting in motion a frantic search by the Sheriff's Office. While canvassing the neighborhoods along the west side of the Harvey Canal, deputies found a pool of her blood behind an apartment building in the 2800 block of Destrehan.

Three days later, they found her decaying body wrapped in a plastic garbage bags and a blanket and stuffed in a garbage can that had been rolled to the curb. She died from the two deep cuts to her neck, authorities said.

Flugence's uncle is married to Ahlittia's mother. He had briefly lived with her family and babysat for the girl. He was arrested three days after her body was found.

After he was indicted Thursday, District Judge Conn Regan ordered Flugence held without bond in the parish jail. His arraignment is scheduled Monday.

The Sheriff's Office detective who led the investigation, Travis Eserman, testified during a probable cause hearing in September that Flugence reported encountering the 6-year-old girl on Destrehan Avenue. Flugence said she essentially seduced him. "In his words, the little girl, she wanted to have sex with him," Eserman testified.

Flugence told investigators they went behind an apartment building, where the girl spread out a blanket. After the act, Flugence supposedly snapped, stabbed the girl and watched her die, Eserman testified.

Peter Scharf, a criminologist affiliated with Tulane University, said sex offenders commonly blame their victims. "Part of the sex offender syndrome is believing the other people are the seductress, no matter how young they are," said Scharf, who is not involved in the Flugence case.

The grand jury also charged Flugence with aggravated rape of another girl, who alleged Flugence sexually violated her. He had been booked with the lesser charge of sexual battery, which involves inappropriate touching. Regan set Flugence's rape bond at $500,000.

He also was indicted on a charge of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling. That's for allegedly breaking into his ex-girlfriend's home in Harvey on July 13, the day Ahlittia died. Regan set bond on the charge at $100,000.

His brother, Russell Flugence, 21, awaits trial on a charge of failing to report a felony. He is accused of withholding from detectives his knowledge of his brother's role in Ahlittia's death. In a recent court hearing, a detective testified that Russell Flugence admitted his brother told him of killing Ahlittia.

In a 2009 interview with The Times-Picayune, Connick said he was not shying away from the death penalty, but he said his office's view of capital punishment had evolved. Prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges "have to do the perfect case" in capital prosecutions, which receive a high level of scrutiny by higher courts.

"It has to be, in our opinion, the worst of the worst," Connick said then. "The facts of the case have to be heinous."